Josephine Heap is a member of the SWEOLD-group at ARC and a Ph. D. student at the Department of Social Work at Stockholm University. She has a BSc in sociology, with special emphasis on investigative research.

She studies elderly people’s living situation with a focus on the coexistence of different problems — such as lack of economic resources, health problems, social isolation and political resources — and how these problems are interrelated. She also studies how patterns of coexisting problems change over time. Age and gender differences are central in the research. Another area of interest is the psychosocial concept Sense of Coherence, which can be described as a measurement of how well equipped people are to deal with stressful events and circumstances in life. A strong Sense of Coherence has been shown to be an important internal resource that moderates negative health outcomes which are caused by stress.